Kohl's loses challenge to Clifton Park assessment

Store based its estimate of property on vacant, out-of-town parcels

By Tim O'Brien

Updated 8:52 pm, Thursday, December 18, 2014

A court rejected Kohl's effort to lower its tax assessment in Clifton Park.

The Illinois-based department store chain had previously lost a case before the Supreme Court, and it challenged that decision in the Appellate Division. The appeals court upheld the decision on Thursday.

Kohl's had sought to lower the assessment of $5,200,900 that the town had placed on the property at 54 Crossing Boulevard. That rate translates into a market value of $8.9 million.

The town and chain had previously gone through a trial in state Supreme Court that resulted in the earlier dismissal.

In its decision, the Appellate Division said there might have been one procedural error in the Supreme Court decision but it was not enough to throw out the verdict.

In challenging an assessment, the burden is on the property owner to prove the assessment is unfounded. The appeals court ruled that the chain's estimate that the property value should have been $4.8 million in 2010 and $4.6 million is 2011 was not well-founded.

The company that appraised the property for Kohl's based its estimate on five vacant, older big-box stores outside the Capital Region, the court said.

But the town's appraiser, John O'Neill, said vacant properties were not comparable.

Daniel Vincelette, the attorney who represented Clifton Park's board of assessors, said the retail chain tried to compare its value to that of empty big-box stores or stores that had been converted to different uses than the original one, like a pharmacy chain store being remade into a Goodwill outlet.

"The town's point is you have to use other first-generation stores," he said. "There were 10 other big-box stores within a half mile. It was kind of ridiculous for the petitioner to claim the reduction they were seeking."

While Clifton Park has no town property tax, Saratoga County and the Shenendehowa school district do. Shenendehowa sided with the town and helped fund the defense.